The Wizard Returns: Book Three of the Wizard Born Series (42 page)

“Hurry!” Melanie said.

The woman moaned louder and Fred shouted, “Do something, Jamie!”

“I’m trying! Everybody just —”

The woman screamed and her body tensed. Then she gasped, let out a soft sigh and went limp.

The room was ghostly quiet as Jamie opened his eyes. Bryce placed his fingers to the side of her neck while everyone watched wordlessly. Bryce shook his head and his mouth pressed into a grim line.

“She’s dead.”

Jamie didn’t sleep well that night, and Rollie and Bryce didn’t seem to, either. He heard them tossing and turning late into the evening, in the bedroom they shared; the rustle of the sheets was the soundtrack of their insomnia. Jamie couldn’t get the awful image from his mind, the anguished look on the man’s face as Jamie, Rollie, and Bryce loaded the woman’s lifeless body, wrapped in a blanket, into the back of the old wagon. Jamie and his friends stood and watched as the man slowly drove away into the darkness, and then they went back inside and sat silently by the fire. It was hours before they finally went to bed.

When Jamie finally managed to doze off, he was troubled by disturbing dreams. He saw the stricken woman, her face contorted with pain, writhing on the bench seat. Then the demon was there, its terrifying red eyes fixed on the woman, one massive clawed hand around her neck, and everyone was screaming,
Do
something, Jamie! Hurry!

I’m hurrying
, Jamie replied. Then the demon was chasing him. Jamie was on a mountainous trail, stumbling over rocks and roots. The demon was closing fast.
Hurry!
He tried to run, but his legs wouldn’t work properly, the way they can be in dreams. They seemed to be mired in tar, every step taking tremendous effort.

Hurry! Do something!

Jamie shouted in his dream,
I’m trying!

Chapter 33

He awoke in sweaty sheets. The light around the curtains was dim and gray as ash. He sat up on the air mattress and rubbed his grainy eyes, then pulled on his slippers and robe and tiptoed from the cold room so as not to disturb Rollie and Bryce.

He found his grandmother in the kitchen, staring blankly out one of the back windows while a pot of water heated over the gas stove on the counter behind her.

“Couldn’t sleep?” she said when she noticed him.

“Not much.”

“Would you like some coffee?”

“Yes, please. Lots.”

She folded her lips into her mouth and closed her eyes for a moment. “You know, I’ve seen a lot of things in my long lifetime, but that’s the first time I’ve ever seen someone die. I wasn’t there when my husband passed away.”

“That’s my second. I saw Renn die, but this was ten times worse.”

“I hope you’re not blaming yourself for her death.”

“No. Well, maybe a little.”

“You can’t do everything.”

“I know. It’s humbling, though, because usually I feel like I can.” He let out a slow breath, his cheeks puffed out. “I just wish...I just wish this place wasn’t so backward, sometimes. If they had a modern hospital, with ambulances and a hospital and stuff, she might’ve made it.”

“I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not.”

He leaned against the counter and crossed his arms loosely over his chest. “I don’t know why they haven’t developed better medical technology here. Or any technology, really. They’re not much farther along than when they left Earth four hundred years ago.”

She sighed and faced out of the window again. Jamie followed her gaze to the backyard and the river beyond. A thin mist, barely visible in the gloom, hung over the water like a spectral shroud and spilled over onto the banks.

“Seems like every time someone gets hurt, they rush to the nearest witch, even if she’s only seventeen years old.”

“I would too, if I were in their shoes. It’s their best option.” She turned to the pot of water, which was boiling. “Let’s get some coffee and talk about something else.”

* * *

Jamie’s chin touched his chest and he jerked his head up. “Uh.” He rubbed his eyes with the back of one hand and exhaled heavily.

Fred, sitting next to him on the bench seat, snapped her book shut. “I can’t do this right now. I can’t focus.”

“Me either,” Rollie said. “My eyes are crossing.”

“I can’t get that poor man’s face out of my mind,” Bryce said. “Watching your wife die like that? Boy, that’s tough.”

“Your dad has to deal with that a lot, I bet,” Melanie said.

“But he’s a doctor and he’s used to it.”

“Probably doesn’t like it, though.”

“Sometimes he comes home from work, pours himself a stiff drink, and disappears into his study for a couple hours.”

“Let’s do something to take our minds off it,” Fred said, “like go for a ride in the carriage. You boys can run.”

“Too early,” Jamie said. “I don’t like to run in the morning if I don’t have to.”

Rollie stood and stretched. “Let’s go see Eddan’s tower.”

“Yeah, Jamie.” Fred sat up and nodded. “That sounds good.”

“We have work to do.”

“We’re too tired to do it right now. Besides, I’ve been hearing about that thing for almost ten years now. I want to see it.”

“Me too,” Bryce said.

Jamie shook his head. “It’s too far. It’s way past the river on the other side of the valley. We won’t all fit in the carriage, and it’ll take too long to fly everybody there one at a time.”

“So make a doorway,” Fred said.

“Too dangerous.”

“Jamie, we’ve been here for almost a week now, and you haven’t felt anybody else do magic, have you?”

“No.”

“And the only other sorcerer who’s shown up is ten years old, and he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

“Except that he might talk it to death,” Melanie added.

“And I’ve got my magic pendant to protect us.” Fred flicked her necklace with one red fingernail. “So let’s go, and let’s take Aiven. He might like to see it, too.”

Jamie sighed as he looked at the determined faces around him. “Okay.”

* * *

Jamie and his friends stood on a low hill and regarded the giant heap of stone rubble that lay before them. “Doesn’t look like much now, but it used to be a two-story tower,” Jamie said.

“Nice view of the valley,” Fred said. “Any neighbors?”

“No. That’s why Eddan built it here.” Jamie toed a rock the size of a bowling ball. “This is good construction stone. I’m surprised somebody hasn’t hauled it off.”

“Looks like Renn really did a number on this place,” Bryce said.

“Probably destroyed it after his last battle with Eddan.”

“Was that right before Eddan escaped to Hendersonville?”

“Yep.” Jamie slipped his hands into his pockets and pushed up one corner of his mouth. “Just think, it all started with that last battle, right here. If Renn had left him alone, Eddan would still be up in that tower, working away, and I never would’ve been born.”

“And we wouldn’t be here together.” Melanie nodded.

“Jamie?” Fred said. “Are you reminiscing?”

He gave his head a tight shake before glancing at her. “Yeah. Lots of memories right now. I’d gotten ’em under control the last few days, but seeing this really brings ’em back.”

“I’m sure,” Bryce said.

Aiven ran around the edge of the debris, stopping here and there to inspect something in the rubble. He bounded back to them, eyes bright. “When I’m a master sorcerer, I’m gonna have a tower just like this one.”

“Make sure you put it closer to town,” Rollie said, “so you can have company once in a while.”

Aiven hopped up on the pile and began to climb toward the top.

“Be careful,” Melanie said. “You could get hurt.”

Aiven ignored her and kept going. Bryce asked, “Jamie, do you think there’s anything still here, like some books or something?”

“Eddan hid all his books in his cave and then burned them so Renn couldn’t get them, and I don’t know what happened to his little gizmos. Probably all crushed.”

Aiven, already near the top of the pile, squatted and pushed a toaster-sized stone aside. “I found something!”

The stone rolled downhill, bouncing and picking up speed as it headed toward Jamie and his friends. “Look out!” Fred said, raising her arms protectively.

Jamie calmly pointed one finger at the projectile and it halted in mid-flight, floating for a moment before settling safely to the ground. “Careful, Aiven. You might hurt somebody.”

Aiven skittered down the ruin, quick as a squirrel, holding a contraption proudly in one hand. “Look what I got!” When he reached Jamie, he handed it to him. “What is it?”

Jamie examined it closely. Mounted vertically on a dinner plate-sized base was a narrow wooden tube, resembling one from a spent roll of paper towels. It had a saw-toothed brass rod running up one side, and a geared knob attached to it. The top end of the tube had a glass disk in it. Jamie felt the bottom and frowned. “The other lens is missing. This is one of Eddan’s early microscopes.”

“Cool,” Rollie said. “I remember you talking about those.”

Melanie gestured at the pile of stones. “Did Eddan ever bring anything back here from one of his trips to Earth?”

“Umm...a solar-powered calculator. I remember that. Some other little stuff. It’s probably all crushed, now. I’m surprised this old microscope survived.”

“Can I have it?” Aiven said.

“Jamie?” Fred said. “Don’t you want to keep something of Eddan’s? You don’t have anything of his, do you?”

Jamie looked at Aiven, who was bouncing on the balls of his feet and biting his bottom lip so hard it looked like it might bleed. Jamie handed it to him and shrugged. “You can have it. I’m sorry it doesn’t work anymore.”

Bryce took a couple of tentative steps onto the pile of stones. “Maybe we can find something else.”

“Not worth it. You could break an ankle or something, climbing in that mess.”

“Don’t you want to take something back with you?” Melanie asked.

“Some other time. Let Aiven have this gizmo for now. It’ll give him something to play with besides that little wooden horse Brinna gave him.” He rubbed his chin with one fingertip. “Heck, I might even be able to fashion a new bottom lens for it with my magic.”

Aiven’s little face beamed even brighter. Rollie said, “Aiven, what you need are some
cool
toys, like some action figures. I ought to give you some of my old ones.”

Fred knitted her brow. “You kept those?”

“They’re in a box somewhere at my house. You saved your dress-up stuff, as I recall.”

“You did?” Melanie said. “Why didn’t you tell me? I’d love to see it. We should pull that out sometime.”

“She still plays dress up,” Jamie said, “but her clothes cost a lot more now.”

Fred stuck her tongue out at him. “At least I didn’t play with that Commander Hawk stuff. That was dumb.”

“Commander Hawk?” Bryce said. “I used to play with him. I had all of his accessories, except for Ranger Randy.”

“Nobody played with him,” Rollie said. “He was just a sidekick.” He clapped one hand on Aiven’s shoulder. “But I still have most of that stuff, and a bunch of other action figures.”

“Don’t you mean
dolls
?” Fred smirked.

“
No
.” He turned back to Aiven. “Next time I come here, I’ll bring you some.”

“But right now,” Jamie said, “you’ll have to settle for a broken microscope. Let’s head back.” He outlined a glowing doorway and pushed it open.

* * *

During their long afternoon session with the magic books, Fred found another tantalizing reference to demons, but no more than that. They soon lost focus, too tired to concentrate, and began chatting. Jamie set his book on the pile near his feet and sighed. “We’re never gonna find the answer at this rate.”

Fred put hers down, too. “If we don’t find it by Sunday, can we come back here next week, after school or something? I think it’s safe to make doorways now, don’t you?”

Jamie took a deep breath before answering. “Bryce and I have track practice pretty much every day, and I’m sure we’ll have plenty of homework, too.”

“I’ve got to work,” Melanie said. “If I still have a job, that is.”

Jamie put his hands behind his head and leaned back in the rocker. “Which brings us to my next point. Since it looks like it’s probably safe to make doorways now, we can go home tonight and come back tomorrow, if you want to.”

Bryce shook his head firmly. “I don’t want to go home yet.”

“I want to stay, too,” Melanie said, “if that’s okay with your grandmother. I don’t have anything to do at home. Plus, I like it here. It’s nice.”

“And I don’t have a home,” Rollie said.

“I want to go to the festival tomorrow,” Fred added. “I say we stay.”

Jamie looked from face to face. “All right. If it’s okay with Gramma, we’ll stay as long as possible.”

“Jamie?” Melanie said. “I’ve been thinking about the magic doorways. Can you make one right here to any other world that you know about?”

“Pretty much, yeah. If it’s a place I’ve never been to, or Eddan hadn’t, I can only make one doorway there.”

“Is that a
magic sense of space
issue?”

“Right. But once I go someplace and move around in it some, I can make more doorways.” Jamie bobbed his head, his mouth twisted sideways. “The spell for each world is similar, and I just alter one step to change it to different worlds.”

“And can you go to any of those other worlds and do the same? Make a doorway to anywhere and everywhere?”

“To any of them I’m aware of, sure. Why?”

“And all of those worlds are similar? Like quantum Earths?”

“They’re all a little different, like the three moon world, but they all have the same gravity and other similarities.”

“That means that every quantum world is connected to every other quantum world, then, right?”

“Like the Internet,” Bryce said.

“Or a brain,” Melanie said.

Jamie stared at her while he processed what she’d said. “Huh. Interesting analogy.”

Rollie furrowed his brow. “So you’re saying that these interconnected worlds could be...what? Thinking? Self-aware?”

Melanie shrugged. “I don’t know. Makes you wonder, though, doesn’t it?”